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The Inspiration Age
This section originally appeared within the "Spiritual Intelligence" section of Part II of the Manifesto, entitled The Prophetic Dimension. This section, and where it appears within Spiritual Intelligence, is indicated below, followed by the text of the section * Normal Intelligence * Paranormal Intelligence * Biblical Examples of Spiritual Intelligence * Prophetic History in CAWKI * God's GPS * Amos 3:7 Principle * Ways not Works * Disciples that God seeks "Preach to the tree!" * Industrial Revolutions compared * The Inspiration Age (the 4th Industrial Revolution) * Prophetic Pictures * Benjamins * Prophetic Warnings * When the Stones cry out ---- I seriously propose that the key concept revolutionizing (not only) the economy in the future will be inspiration. In the information age we are online – via modem or DSL. But on the other side is still only a computer, programmed by humans. In the Inspiration Age we also will be increasingly online: with the invisible world. The basic innovation is the widespread discovery of the reality of inspiration. Whoever grasps the nature and anatomy of inspiration, and the connection between inspiration, innovation, and industrialization, will have a huge head start into the future. The future world will be divided into the inspired and the uninspired, those offering inspiration, and those buying – or ignoring it. No human being is able to know all the relevant facts any more – he depends on the right inspiration, whether he likes it or not. Management by gut feeling or spontaneity won’t be enough. The Bible describes the End of Ages as an era where there are two groups greatly contrasting each other: an anti- Christian, Babylonian world system, a “container of all unclean spirits” on one hand, and “apostles, prophets and saints” on the other. Both groups are inspired – from vastly different sources: one by Satan, the other one by God. If this describes the climax of human history, we better get ready for the future. And make sure we are truly online with God. The places where prophecy happens is where people of God spend private and corporate time in God’s presence – as they draw near to him, God draws near to them. How do these “inspiration factories” or “dream laboratories” work? How does this look in practice? Here is an example from the business world: ;“God gives it to his beloved in their sleep” Have you smiled about this nice little verse before? Actually, the bed is probably the most prophetic place on the planet for a human being. As we finally shut up, God finds space to talk. His spirit talks to our spirit. Most of the prophetic people who I know and sometimes travel with are a plain nightmare of a roommate. “For God speaks, though man may not perceive it, in a dream, a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls on men as they slumber in their -beds” (Job 33:14-18). These guys are really online at night! They toss, moan, talk, suddenly get up, kneel, pray, back to bed, more tossing - and then try to sleep during the day. It was 1995 when a man from Pondicherry in southern India woke up one day with a stunning dream. Very clearly he had seen a chemical formula in his dream. As he wrote it down it turned out to be a formula for a glue. And more than that: he realized that one of the components actually is available as a by-product at another factory – for free. He set out to test that glue, planned its production – and in no time, “Jabez Polymer” was born, a company that quickly gained a place among India’s leading glue manufacturers. People whispered that the owner had imported costly hightech Know How from America and thus made it so fast to the top. The company was able to make so much profit, that it could support many missionary projects in India. An inspiration had become an innovation. But: as in many God-inspired business ideas, this one was short-lived, too. They do convey an important lesson, but are not geared to create everlasting financial independence. After 2001’s 9/11, a granulate necessary for glue production at Jabez was difficult to get without paying a bribe, because it could be used for the production of explosives, too. Since the company did not want to bribe, finances became tight later on. I want to establish this simple principle: inspiration precedes information, and spiritual intelligence that is inspiration-driven is therefore more far-reaching than traditional intelligence that tries to collect information and connect the dots. Both are necessary, and both are helpful. But they need to come in the right order. In today’s information-flooded world, no one in his right mind can base sound decisions solely on traditional intelligence anymore; he will err! Just look at our secret services. Therefore, we all need to reach out into the invisible – the spiritual plug point – and learn to rely more and more on inspiration rather than just information. Here an anatomy of the process of inspiration. See it as a waterfall that cascades down five steps like this: Intimacy (with God) is the spiritual place, the source of inspiration. When you draw near to God, who is Spirit, he promises he will draw near to you. This is where God reveals secrets, plans, agendas, in the place where you and he whisper together like friends. And in this place of intimacy, when he whispers, “I love you,” you faint. Inspiration is a fresh droplet of revelation, supernatural knowledge from God in the form of visions, insights, pictures, etc. When the revelation “I love you!” hits you, you cry. Information is empirical data; sound bytes. You read or hear: “God loves you.” And all you do in response is nod. “Good to know!” Traditions are frozen information, the collective memory of a people. When you recite John 3:16, you frown. “Yeah, that’s what they say.” Faded memories occur when you have moved so far away from the source of inspiration, God-stuff appears to you like disconnected puzzle pieces that may make you feel warm, but will have no effect on you. You hear: “God loves you,” and you smile and reply: “How sweet!” and order another ice cream. An actual bombshell of inspiration has become an irrelevant piece of hearsay. Humans basically have one key choice to make in life: to live an inspired life or an informed life. To choose not to be inspired by God means to choose to be inspired by man – and drown in all that human information, tradition, or be trapped by circumstances, the Status Quo stuff. This is a safe guarantee to miss the original goal of life altogether. And there is something worse than that: to be inspired by the one thing that mankind without God is inspired most by: Mammon. The Bible speaks of a demonic world out there waiting to be teachers and inspirers of man. To ignore it is like ignoring a red light and walking across a busy street. To do nothing in self-defense and remain passive in this key area is to be washed away with the spirit of the age, tossed about like a small boat in a big sea. It leads to a life that I call Life 1.0, a downgraded life, a life of subsistence and ultimately slavery, where we are forced to do what we don’t want to do. Inspired people hear from their maker about their destiny, find out their reason for existence, and are spiritually empowered to fulfill their special mission in life. In short: Inspired people are alive in the fullest sense of the word; informed people merely exist but do not really live.